Congressional Physicians Warn Health Community of Coming Government Intervention

As Congress tries to push through health care reform at a rapid speed and publicize so-called deals with several health industry groups (most recently with hospitals), other members associated with the medical community also have been stepping up their efforts to warn doctors of the potential ramifications with the current health reform.

Roughly seven congressmen (who also happened to be physicians) this week warned health care providers at George Washington University Hospital that components being considered — such as a public health insurance plan, health insurance czar and federal health board — could deteriorate the doctor-patient relationship.

“We tried experimenting with a public plan in Tennessee” through the state’s Medicaid managed program called TennCare, said U.S. Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.), who has served as a general physician.

With its near open-ended eligibility, the program found 45 percent of new enrollees previously had private insurance but dropped their plans to go with the less expensive public program, Roe noted during the physician townhall meeting put on by the Medical Society of the District of Columbia. “It became over-utilized and almost broke the state,” he said, adding that patients in TennCare had problems accessing physicians.

Rep. Burgess (R-Texas), who has practiced medicine in North Texas for more than 25 years, said he’s worried a federal health czar would determine his health savings account (HSA) was no longer a viable way to pay for health coverage. “The president has said that if you like what you have, you can keep it. But what if the secretary of a health insurance board says the HSA doesn’t qualify? So if you like what you have, you can keep it until you can’t.”

Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) pressed a D.C. doctor at the townhall, who called for a greater federal role in promoting healthy behavior in low-income populations, to consider less government intervention. “If you say that these folks are victims, you’re giving them false compassion,” said Cassidy, who spent 20 years practicing at Earl K. Long Hospital in Baton Rouge.

On the Senate side, Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) this week started hosting an online show, “Senate Doctors,” that focuses on the health care policy issues being discussed on Capitol Hill.

“As a practicing physician, I know that the doctor-patient relationship is at the heart of medicine,” said Coburn, a family physician who has specialized in obstetrics. “Unfortunately, some in the Senate want to sever that relationship and put unaccountable and unqualified politicians and government bureaucrats in charge of medicine.”

I'm not wealthy, at all, but government is the last place I want to have to turn to get my health care. I value what's left of my freedom and liberty, little though it may yet be, to see the US Government get its hands into healthcare.

I do not need a healthcare Nanny…yet, if I did, I would certainly not turn to a nation that has given us a bankrupt social security system…a longstanding trade imbalance…trillions of dollars in national debt…and no sign of fiscal responsibility as far as the eye can see. (And there is much more that could be said about the imprudence of many decades worth of US Governmental mismanagement…Democrat and Republican alike.)

Wake up sheepies. The fact is, the number of uninsured is less then 5 percent of the population. The same 5 percent that will be uninsured after they shove government medicine down our throats. This is phoney outrage on the part of the Socialists to gain control of the money in medicine. That's what they are after, pure and simple. This is not for the American people. How long is it going to take you to figure out that none of this is being done for us…………………..it is being done to us…………………..your vote/voice does not count.

There will always be those that do not and will not engage. Of the 50 million people that are not insured how many do not want to be? Why change a system the majority are fairly happy with for the sake of the irresponsible? Can we just qualify them for Medicaid? Problem solved! Oh yeah, Medicaid is broken! So we can expect better from a national health care program than what we have?!?! It is time for a grass roots approach to stop these knuckleheads from socializing our great country!

I watched this conference on C Span. There was an appropriately clad Activist, claiming to be an WU Internist, who literally read off her teleprompter cards the Lefts line of concerns. Basically, it was wrong to blame the poor, wrong to allow sodas in schools, wrong to blame the poor for being obese, uneducated, and wrong not to provide massive funding for thier care and support. The Docs did not budge. To their credit they responded decently and without rancor. Which, in my opine, would have been well deserved.

Everything is a GD crisis with this administration. Sorry. It is not. The only plausible reason they are trying to get this junk through is before they lose the mid-term elections in 2010. It is obvious that they have NO interest in the welfare of the American people. With the coming inflation & new energy taxes (not to mention the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and child tax credits), the average citizen will have less and less disposable income. For the those without medical insurance or those that just can barely afford their medical insurance, they will have to make some difficult choices. This is absolutely how their socialist strategy is supposed to play out. We need to stop this now.

If they want to have this federal plan so badly that they will risk the best medical programs in the world, then let us all have the same plan. From the President, Congress and on down to us "common citizens". Let us all wait in the same line and pay the same fees. When the medical information and laboratory companies reach for hand outs and people start to die waiting for service, maybe people will see the "management" of Obama for what it is, nothing but a shame.

If it passes and since he has full power to do what ever he wants should the elderly and people who are so sick their health care is expensive just go ahead and commit sucicide since he won't let them have treatment ?

I just do not see in the Constitution where it says that everyone is entitled to health insurance, including about 11 million illegal immigrants.Look what illegals are doing to California's budget. The government could not manage a pay toilet.

The government in charge of healthcare is a big mistake. In my town there are very few primary care docs because of the government's current Medicare and Medicaid payment program. Docs can't make a living seeing patients with those payors. Three doctors have left in the past 2 years to avoid bankruptcy. The remaining docs refuse to see patients with Medicare and/or Medicaid. I have a terrible time finding someone to see my handicapped son although he is on Medicaid. For that reason – I pay most of what I make on my job for BC/BS which is accepted readily. What will happen when everyone has government insurance? At some point the government will get rid of my insurance carrier and demand that I use the governments carrier. Docs will be rare commodities. Wake up. Only the liberal ivy league Obama/Kennedy/Perlosi's will be able to choose quality health professionals.

Don’t have time to read the Washington Post or New York Times? Then get The Morning Bell, an early morning edition of the day’s most important political news, conservative commentary and original reporting from a team committed to following the truth no matter where it leads.

Email address

Ever feel like the only difference between the New York Times and Washington Post is the name? We do. Try the Morning Bell and get the day’s most important news and commentary from a team committed to the truth in formats that respect your time…and your intelligence.